Author: Ram Madhav
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: January 24, 2006
MS Golwalkar, who took over as Sarsanghchalak
from RSS founder KB Hedgewar, symbolised Sanatani ideals
The RSS is very difficult to understand; and
very easy to misunderstand," said Prof Walter Anderson, American political
scientist and the author of the book, The Brotherhood in Saffron. What is
the core idea of the Sangh? What is Hindutva? Is it a vision of a theocratic
state? Is it a Fascist movement? Political pundits have been debating these
issues ever since the RSS became a formidable force in Indian public life.
That a movement of gigantic proportions like
the RSS can remain apolitical is difficult for many to comprehend. It is essentially
because of the prevalent political climate in the world where political power
is held supreme. Politicians are loath to the existence of any other power
than political. Franklin D Roosevelt once said: "The liberty of a democracy
is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point
where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its
essence, is Fascism; ownership by an individual, by a group or by any controlling
private power."
The RSS, on the other hand, believed in the
age-old Hindu dictum of the supremacy of dharma over the supremacy of the
king/emperor. Its Hindu rashtra is essentially a 'dharmocratic' idea - superior
to the popular political idea of democracy.
To understand the RSS one must study Madhav
Sadashiv Golwalkar, also called Guruji, the second chief of the organisation
whose birth centenary is being celebrated this year. While Keshavram Baliram
Hedgewar had laid the foundation of the RSS in 1925, it was Golwalkar who
gave it firm philosophical basis during his tenure as its chief between 1940
and 1973.
Plato talked about Philosopher Kings. But
India has had a long tradition of philosopher-guided kings. While kings ruled
landscapes, saints and recluses ruled over kings and steered social mindscapes.
They made dharma and culture the guiding posts of the social life, not politics.
We come across one Chanakya, one Samartha Ram and one Vidyaranya in history.
We find in recent times leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jayaprakash Narayan,
among others, personifying the same ideal.
Unfortunately, post-Independence, politicians
became supreme in our public life and statesmen were discounted. Politics
took precedence over everything including dharmic and cultural values of the
nation. The RSS was born essentially to restore the supremacy of dharma and
culture in our public life. There is an imminent conflict between modern-day
political ideas which considered political power as supreme and argued over
what form - democracy, dictatorship, monarchy, aristocracy - of political
power is the best; and an essentially Hindu idea of a 'dharmocracy' - an idea
that upholds dharma and culture as the core identity of the nation and tries
to build all institutions including political power around these.
Golwalkar articulated this ideal of dharmic
supremacy very forcefully. He reiterated the fact that a nation is not just
a geo-political idea; it is a product of historical evolution. Our nation
is Hindu because its history and tradition is Hindu.
Underscoring the fault-lines in the Western
nation-state concept, he wrote: "The first requisite for a nation is
a contiguous piece of land delimited as far as possible by natural boundaries
to serve as the substratum on which the nation has to live, grow and prosper.
Then the second requisite is the people living in that particular territory
should have developed love and adoration for it as their motherland, as the
place of their sustenance, security and prosperity. In short, they should
feel that they are the children of that soil. Then, they should have evolved
a definite way of life molded by community of life-ideals, of culture, of
feelings, sentiments, faith and traditions. If people thus become united in
a well-ordered society having common traditions and aspirations, a common
memory of the happy and unhappy experience of their past life, common feelings
of friendship and hostility, and their interests intertwined in one identical
whole - then such people living as children of that particular territory may
be termed a 'nation'."
It is interesting to note that after all the
experiments and experiences of the 20th century, many Western political scientists
are coming round to the same view. "No nation exists in the absence of
a national history, enshrining in the minds of its people common memories
of their travails and triumphs; heroes and villains; enemies and wars; defeats
and victories," wrote Prof Samuel Huntington in his latest book, Who
Are We.
Golwalkar was just 35 when he took over the
reins of the RSS in 1940. The country was preparing for freedom. What should
be the direction of free India? Not many leaders were bothered about this
question. For many, freedom meant constitutional government and creation of
various political institutions. Yet there were some who felt the nation is
not about politics alone. Gandhi had talked about Ram Rajya and Golwalkar
articulated his Hindu rashtra thesis.
Golwalkar was not a politician; he was essentially
a statesman-saint. He believed in creating a social power based on dharma.
Naturally, politicians like Nehru who were seeped in the Rooseveltian belief
in people's power, saw in him a threat. "I will crush the RSS under my
own feet," Nehru once said. "I will crush this crushing mentality,"
replied Golwalkar.
In those days Golwalkar was the only leader
in the country who could match Nehru in popularity. "Sri Guruji is a
shining star on the Indian horizon. Pandit Nehru is the only other person
in India who attracts such a huge crowd," commented the BBC in 1949.
It was essentially a clash between a politician wanting to establish the supremacy
of politics and a statesman-saint who was committed to establishing the supremacy
of dharma.
For the RSS and Golwalkar himself, the period
immediately after his taking over as Sangh chief was the most difficult and
challenging. There was severe communal strife leading to partition. Hindus
had suffered greatly and needed protection that was not forthcoming from the
Government. Then came the scandalous allegation of the assasination of Gandhi
followed by an 18-month ban on the RSS. A campaign of calumny was let loose
on the organisation as 'communal', fascist, anti-Muslim, etc. The entire machinery
of the Government was directed towards defaming the RSS. Any other organisation
would have crumbled. But the RSS did not; instead, it emerged stronger.
Golwalkar always looked at the problems confronting
the nation as a statesman and cautioned the leaders periodically. It is another
matter that arrogant as politicians of his times were, they seldom lent their
ears to his sage counsel and the nation had to pay a heavy price for it.
"China is expansionist in nature and
is very likely to attack Bharat soon," Golwalkar warned in 1951. "It
has been a terribly blunderous act to gift away Tibet to China. It is one
blunder that even the British did not commit." While congratulating the
Indian Army for its spectacular victory over Pakistan in 1971 he did not forget
to tell the nation about the impending danger from Bangladesh. "If the
present friendly Bangladesh turns to an extremist Islamic regime, we would
have two independent enemies in the East and North-East."
Golwalkar detested reactionary tendencies
in Hinduism. While he opposed the Congress's brand of hybrid nationalism,
he was opposed equally to rabid Hinduism. Thus he wrote: "Once a gentleman
asked me whether we are organising Hindus in order to counteract the various
activities of the Muslims. I simply told him that even if Prophet Mohammed
had not been born and Islam had not come into existence, we would have taken
up this work just as we are doing it today, if we had found Hindus in the
same disorganised, self-forgetful condition as at present."
Mark Twain once said, "In the beginning
of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated, and scorned. When
his cause succeeds, however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing
to be a patriot." It happened with Golwalkar as well. Those who reviled
him and wanted to crush his organisation had to recognise the great potential
that he and his organisation had for the country. The RSS was invited to undertake
a march-past shoulder to shoulder with the armed forces in the Republic Day
parade in 1963 by Nehru himself.
Golwalkar was adored by millions but abhorred
by a handful. Yet, when he passed away, the same politicians who opposed him
had to pay rich tribute to him. "We have lost in Guru Golwalkar a famous
personality. He held a respected position in the nation by the force of his
personality and the intensity of his convictions," said Indira Gandhi,
the then Prime Minister.
(The author, national spokesman of the RSS,
contributed this article to mark the centenary year of MS Golwalkar)
